Recently, several proposals for golf balls exhibiting both a high ball resilience and a soft impact feel have been proposed. Representative examples thereof include so-called three-piece golf balls comprising a core, an intermediate layer and a cover, and development thereof has been actively pursued. For example, the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,667 discloses a three-piece golf ball wherein the intermediate layer is formed into a lattice structure using a hard material and a cover is provided thereon. In this structure, because the cover is covered with a hard intermediate layer, deformation of the core when impacted by a golf club is prevented, thus achieving a high ball resilience.
In the golf ball disclosed in the above publication, a portion of the inner surface of the cover extends to the core through an aperture in the lattice of the intermediate layer and reaches the surface of the core. Therefore, of the inner surface of the cover, some portion contacts the intermediate layer and some portion contacts the core. This renders a problem such that thick and thin portions coexist in the same cover, and when the thick portion is hit, the impact feels hard. As a result, the hardness is uneven depending on the portion hit, and a uniform impact feel cannot be obtained.